by Bulldog Drummond
We have some more information on who might be playing on Thursday. Dominic Thompson now seems to be our prime choice either for left back or back up left back.
And the reason for this is that in addition to the injuries to Sead Kolasinac and Ainsley Maitland-Niles, that we highlighted in the last preview Jordi Osei-Tutu and Cohen Bramall, the two players we picked as possible replacements, are also injured! This is getting to be like the year of the 7 left backs in 2oo6.
But we do have Tolaji Bola who is the first-choice left-back for the under 23s, and I am not sure what has happened to him. Has he been injured too? Anyway Dominic Thompson seems to be the man training with the team, so maybe he is going to be playing against Vorskla. Or perhaps he’ll be on the beach.
As suggested with our earlier chitchat on the subject of who might play, Emile Smith Rowe, Julio Pleguezuelo and Eddie Nketiah also trained with the first team, so I guess we can expect all of these to be in the squad.
Indeed Arsenal have now released the list of players currently in training, so we have to pick 18 from
Cech, Leno, Martinez, Bellerin, Mustafi, Sokratis, Monreal, Guendouzi, Ramsey, Ozil, Xhaka, Aubameyang, Lacazette, Lichtsteiner, Holding, Iwobi, Elneny, Mkhitaryan, Welbeck, Torreira, Thompson, Smith Rowe, Nketiah, Pleguezuelo.
How about for the 18 man squad if we have…
Leno, Martinez, Bellerin, Mustafi, Sokratis, Monreal, Guendouzi, Lichtsteiner, Holding, Iwobi, Elneny, Mkhitaryan, Welbeck, Torreira, Thompson, Smith Rowe, Nketiah, Pleguezuelo.
Meanwhile here is what our next opponents have been up to of late.
| Date | Competition | Home team | Score | Away team |
| 19/08/18 | Lge | Vorskla | 2 – 1 | Mariupol’ |
| 25/08/18 | Lge | Oleksandria | 2 – 0 | Vorskla |
| 31/08/18 | Lge | Vorskla | 2 – 1 | Chornomorets |
| 08/09/18 | Friendly | Vorskla | 5 – 4 | Oleksandria |
| 15/09/18 | Lge | Karpaty | 0 – 1 | Vorskla |
So leaving aside the friendly Vorskla have won their last two.
The big name in the history of Vorskla was the local mayor and president of the club, Oleh Babaiev who was very keen on establishing greater recreational opportunities within the region, and who oversaw the re-building of the sports facilities in the city which were left over from the days of the Soviet Union.
However on 26 July 2014 Babaiev was shot dead in his car, in what was described as a premeditated murder. Six months later a memorial to Oleh Babaiev financed by those who were his friends was unveiled in Kremenchug, one of the parks he restored.
Of course Vorskla itself by that time was well established having gained entry to the group stage of the 2011/2 Europa league – their highest achievement on the international arena. Last season the club finished third in the top division for the first time since 1997. It was only the second time they finished third – their highest position. They have also won the Ukrainian Cup once, in 2009.
The club now play in the Butovsky Memorial Vorskla Stadium, a ground named after one of the founders of the modern Olympic games.
They first entered the Uefa Cup in 2000/1 going out in the first round to Boavista. They returned in 2009/10 when they were eliminated by Benfica.
In 2011/12 they came through two qualifying rounds and the play off round to get into the group stages where they played Hannover 96, Standard Liege and Copenhagen, drawing one and losing the other games.
In both 2015/16 and 2016/17 they entered at the third qualifying round stage and lost at that point.
Given that this is Arsenal in the Europa League we can expect lots of coverage in the media of the number of empty seats in the stands but precious little concerning the game.
If we win by a large margin the result will have taught observers in the press box nothing, if we only just win we will be a shambles and the manager’s choice of players will be called into question. Any other result and I leave what the media will say to your imagination.
Still as is often the case these days there is a little bit of a side show. Mauricio Pochettino accused the so-called journalists of “disrespecting” his players after the defeat to Inter by 2-1. He said…
“When my decision is to play with 11, you must respect my decision because I am the manager. It’s so painful to hear when some people are not here and you judge in that way.”
Translations into English are, as ever, welcome.
- Is Europe sliding back to 1930s? In football the answer looks worrying.
- FA kick tiny team out of Cup over £10 fine dispute, but still won’t reveal Grenfell money
- Arsenal v Vorskla: who might play – the line up will tell us a lot about the manager’s thinking
Off topic Bulldog but out Women are one goal up after six minutes against Yeovil Town. Jordan Nobbs with a right footed shot from the left side of the box into the bottom left corner. At 1t minutes possession 69/40 to Arsenal. Three shots to one in our favour
20 minutes in and Beth Mead has added a second – right foot shot from the centre of the box to the centre of the area. Nothing yet from Miedema who has successive hat-tricks but still early days.
BD, thanks for the information. But from the 25 senior and U23 Gunners who are reported to have trained today for the Vorskla game tomorrow, Mavropanos’ name is not among them. I wonder if he has played for the U23 team last night or he too is carrying an injury or he’s not in Emery’s plan for the match.
Now there are 4 U23 team Gunners amongst the 25 who trained for the Vorskla game that’s coming up tomorrow with Dominic Thompson as a new entrant to the fold from the U23 team. But there is no Tolaji Bola from the U23 in the squad as thought he would be.
I think the 18 Gunners you’ve separated from the 25 to be the match day squad for Vorskla makes sense. And I’ll go along with them.
My reviewed Arsenal starts and bench for Vorskla from the ones I made yesterday night on this site read as below.
Starts:
Leno
Lichtsteiner Holding Pleguezuelo Thomson
Elneny Torreira
Nkethia Rowe Iwobi
Welbeck.
Bench:
Martinez Bellerin Sokratis Monreal Guendouzi Mkhitaryan Lacazette.
Welbeck and Nkethia could interchange position during the game if both players start the match.
First half ends and still just the two goals for Arsenal. 61% possession, 9 shots to 2 and four corners to nil. Sounds like we are dominating the game. More goals to come in the second half I’m sure.
In the other Women’s matches – Bristol v Chelsea is goalless on 79 mins, Birmingham have just started their second half one up at home to Brighton and West Ham v Reading is goalless at half time.
If scores stay like this it gives us a useful four point cushion over Chelsea after two league games as well as a 7 goal difference.
COYWG
Come on Miedema, get another hat trick! I wonder what the record for successive hat tricks is? 🙂
I hope that doesn’t jinx things.
COYWG!
Half time sub for Arsenal. Katie McCabe replacing Danielle Van de Donk.
Confirmation that the Chelsea game finished nil all – two games for Chelsea without them scoring. Can only be good for us!
Three early corners in the first five minutes then Katie McCabe makes it three nil with a right footed shot from the centre of the box into the bottom right corner from a Nobbs assist. That’s the game 100% secure now!
Miedema now Sprung into life and gets our fourth two minutes after Katie, Assist from Kim Little, Min 56 then has one saved , Louise Quinn then has a header save from an Arsenal corner. Kim Little comes close in Min 58 and Min 60 Lia Walti has a right footed shot go just over the bar.
We are absolutely dominant. 16 shots, 9 on target and 9 corners to nil to go with our four goals.
Mins 60 to 75 are quieter, both managers making substitutions. For us Lisa Evans and Leah Williamson come on replacing Beth Mead and Lia Walti.
Jordan Noobs then starts the last fifteen minutes with a right footed shot from outside the box to the top right corner making it five nil. She is now on a hat-trick for this game.
OTWG
It’s now six nil Dominique Bloodworth right footed shot from a difficult angle on the left to the bottom right corner.
I wonder who is going to be next.
The Birmingham v Brighton game has just finished one nil to Birmingham so they sit second in the table having won both of them by one nil.
West Ham v Reading is still goalless with added time to play
Five minutes to go in our match
Full time and Arsenal win by SEVEN goals to Nil.
The final goal was scored by Kim Little who was teed up by Vivianne Miedema in the 89th minute.
Stats Arsenal with 56% possession,, shots 22 to Yeovil’s 4, on target 11 to w, corners 9 to Arsenal, none to Yeovil and 8 Yeovil fouls to our 3.
Five second half goals added to the two in the first half.
Now on to Sunday and a 14:00 kickoff against West Ham who we beat 3-1 in our first Continental Tyres Cup Match. With the men kicking off at 16:00 there probably won’t be mutch of a crowd at Borehamwood. I wish the Club had changed the time or date to make it possible to get to both.
COYWG
Thanks Andrew. Will you be writing up a report for those who didn’t see it here? You can cut and paste all your comments here if you wish. I won’t tell.
Congratulations to the Women’s team! That’s what 16 goals over 2 games, or 21 goals over 3 games? Mighty impressive!
Being up +14 on goal difference over second place, puts a bit of pressure on Chel$ea and Man$ity. A likely outcome of this, is that when Chel$ea and Man$ity play Yeovil, they need to get substantially higher scores than 7-0. Yeovil is not going to have an enjoyable season. I hope they continue to try, and to try and learn in playing in the top league. But if all they do is think about points, standings and goal difference, they could easily become miserable.
I asked earlier about consecutive hat tricks. I don’t care about gender. I think just getting two hat tricks in a row is rare, so it may be possible that 2 is the record. But, no research. The Women’s season is short, will Miedema get a chance to string together hat tricks again this year? But maybe there are number of hat tricks in a season to look for?